Interlude
by Kaytrina
Summary: A short scene between two characters before the end of their journey. Not my usual style.


So the end had finally come. Tomorrow morning, they would set off together for the last time. At the crossroads at the edge of town, they would separate, this time for good. She had thought she would cry when this moment came, but now she found that all she could do was sit, think, and remember.

Fuu wondered what the other two were doing right now. She could find out easily enough; they were just down the hall in their rooms. But if she had to look at them, look at him, she knew that the tears would start to flow. Hell, they were probably asleep anyway. They'd just woken from their week-long coma yesterday and were both still pretty beat. They probably weren't concerned at all. She was losing her saviors; they were only ridding themselves of a burden.

What was she going to do without them? She had wanted to believe that she could get along alone, had been desperate to prove it to herself, and to them, but look where her pride had gotten them. She'd almost lost them both. Leaving her was probably the best thing for them, yet Fuu wanted desperately to hold on. For the first time since her mother died, she had a family. She didn't want to lose that again, lose them. She didn't want to lose him.

A small beam of yellow light cut through the darkness, and Fuu turned in her seat. Mugen stood in the doorway, arms crossed, looking at her. She smiled softly, and motioned him to enter.

He walked in slowly, still limping slightly, and approached where Fuu sat at the window. He stood, looming over her, frowning.

"They hurt you." He said quietly.

Fuu lifted a hand to her purple and still slightly swollen eye. "It's nothing. Only a few cuts and bruises."

"Did they do…anything else?"

Fuu didn't have to ask what he meant. She looked away from him, tried to answer carefully. "I was unconscious for a long time. But no, I don't think so."

She glanced back up at him. His face was still bruised and the deep claw-like cuts on his right cheek glowed black in the moonlight. The bandage around the gash in his chest was visible beneath his clothes, and he heavily favored his left leg. Fuu felt her eyes well up, and fought to keep her composure.

"Look at you." She said, her voice shaking. "You're a mess."

"I've been worse. These scratches on my face are going to scar, though." He lifted a hand to them, frowning.

"It's okay." Fuu reached out, touched them with the tips of her fingers. "They…fit you, in a way."

Mugen didn't reply, just stared as Fuu ran her fingers down the puckered skin. When Fuu drew her hand back, he grabbed her wrist. He held it, face impassive, but his eyes were bright and burning, shining with more emotion than Fuu had ever seen him show. She knew then that if she didn't touch him, right now, she would break.

She closed the space between them, wrapping her arms around his neck. She buried her face into his chest, breathing in his scent of sweat and spice and man. Mugen went very still, then slowly wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank you, Mugen. Thank you for saving me." She spoke softly against his skin, and felt his breath quicken. His heart was thundering in his chest, beating in time with Fuu's own. His hands moved up her back and tangled into her hair. He pulled her head back, and Fuu felt faint at the look on his face – dark and hot and feral.

"What do you want?" His voice was thick and husky, and his grip on her hair was tight. But his eyes…his eyes were unshielded, and held a question that Fuu had been asking herself for a while now. She smiled at him, and took her face in his hands.

"Just you, Mugen."

He didn't smile back. "I can't stay with you. There are places I have to go, things I have to settle."

"I know that. But at least…we'll have this, right?"

Mugen smiled, a real smile, and brought his lips down onto hers. They were hard and slick and salty, just as Fuu had imagined. He nipped at her throat and his callused hands began to wander. As he pushed her back towards the mat in the corner, Fuu knew that this was not a beginning. But it was not an end, either. They would leave each other tomorrow - Mugen to settle old scores, Fuu to finally learn how to survive on her own.

One day, she knew, she would look up to see Mugen standing in her doorway. Until then, they would always have this one night to see them through.


End file.
